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Handel's 'Hercules'

Lyric Opera, Civic Opera House, opened March 4.

Director Peter Sellars' transformative take on the Baroque composer's 1744 musical drama explored the terrible psychological toll post-traumatic stress takes on soldiers, their families and loved ones as they try to pick up the pieces back home. A superb cast, orchestra and chorus put a human face on war's appalling truths as they worked across the music's vast emotional trajectory. In Sellars' update, the verities captured so brilliantly in Handel's oratorio leapt across time and space with shattering impact.